Reading the comments on the E&Y BAS tread below, the feeling I get is that PwC had a strong Fin Mgt pratice before it was acquired by IBM. After it was a acquired things when downhill. Hints on the E&Y BAS tread are about leadership but I would have thought it was the move from a professional parntership to a large big chip IT company that caused the deline ?Can anyone provide insight or comment ?

A variety of factors stymied the success of the IBM takeover of PwC Consulting. Partner greed was the primary issue - first we became Monday, and then suddenly there was a frenzied auction between EDS and IBM for the business. PwC partners gave little thought to the strategic fit, and just chased the short term gain.Once the takeover occurred, legacy PwC partners and those above old PC rank shared the spoils among themselves, leaving the junior staff with little job security, no prospect of training, promotion, or pay rises, and just body shopped our UK staff onto soul destroying long term public sector assignments in places like the MOD and the DWP. This business model was successful (for those with stock options) in the short term, but ultimately once the consultancy market picked up, anyone with a bit of nous took the first good opportunity that came their way.The concern is that many of these senior ex-PwC staff, who were responsible for killing the Golden Goose, have now just exercised their stock options and no longer feel any need to stay on at IBM to repair the damage, and so are now leaving to join many of the newly reformed accounting advisory services.Expect to see similar patterns wherever you see these people pop up in leadership positions.

Would tend to agree with your feelings about this decline, but I never worked at IBM after PwC so I do not know all the reasons for it, if we assume it is the case. However from what I do know I reckon that there were several reasons behind it.- Many clients would associate IBM with 'IT & Systems', whereas with PwC they are more likely to think 'Finance & Accounting'. It is little wonder then that their relative successes in consulting are correlated to this perception, even if internally people know of IT wizards at PwC and Fin.Mgt. specialists at IBM.- The leadership thread is interesting, as is the cultural change from a professional partnership to a listed company. There are pro's and con's to both of these structures. - There are many other reasons involved however as to why practice areas rise and decline. It is unwise to ignore them.Interesting observation though!